April 2011 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

M is for Musical Format

LP sales are only a fraction of CD or download sales.

When I was a teenager buying music, the LP, the long-playing album played at 33 revolutions per minute, was the dominant recording format in the United States and elsewhere. Then the CD, the shiny disc, was introduced in the 1980s, and by the end of that decade, the compact disc had supplanted the LP as the dominant musical form. CD sales peaked in 2000 with 942.5 million units sold in the US but have begun a steady decline in the 21st century, losing out to digital sales.

It has been predicted that digital music sales will surpass CDs in 2012, although even digital sales in the US were flat in 2010, possibly because of economic unease.

But here’s the odd phenomenon: since 2007, vinyl sales have been on the rise. It’s nowhere near the LP’s heyday, but in an era where physical manifestations of music are on the wane, it’s a peculiar trend.

Top Selling Vinyl Albums Of 2008
1 – Radiohead – In Rainbows – 25,800
2 – The Beatles – Abbey Road – 16,500
3 – Guns N Roses – Chinese Democracy – 13,600
4 – B-52s – Funplex – 12,800
5 – Portishead – Third – 12,300
6 – Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane over the Sea – 10,200
7 – Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon – 10,200
8 – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes – 9,600
9 – Metallica – Death Magnetic – 9,400
10 – Radiohead – OK Computer – 9,300

Top Selling Vinyl Albums Of 2009
1 – The Beatles – Abbey Road – 34,800
2 – Michael Jackson – Thriller – 29,800
3 – Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion – 14,000
4 – Wilco – Wilco – 13,200
5 – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes – 12,700
6 – Pearl Jam – Backspacer – 12,500
7 – Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest – 11,600
8 – Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction – 11,500
9 – Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey… – 11,500
10 -Radiohead – In Rainbows – 11,400

Top Selling Vinyl Albums Of 2010
1 – The Beatles, Abbey Road -35,000
2 – Arcade Fire, The Suburbs -18,800
3 – The Black Keys, Brothers -18,400
4 – Vampire Weekend, Contra -15,000
5 – Michael Jackson, Thriller -14,200
6 – The National, High Violet -13,600
7 – Beach House, Teen Dream -13,000
8 – Jimi Hendrix Experience, Valleys of Neptune -11,400
9 – Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon -10,600
10 – The xx, The xx -10,200

Again, LP sales are only a fraction of CD or download sales. Still it’s a growing trend when many believe the music industry is experiencing a slow painful death.

ABC Wednesday – Round 8

A television meme

I so seldom watch TV in real time anyway.

SamuraiFrog says the “questions here are taken from the defunct TV Tuesday blog.”

1. What is your favorite “Classic” TV show?

The Dick Van Dyke Show, followed by The Twilight Zone; these are only two series I own in their entirety (although I would have bought the MAS*H box when it was on sale had the packaging not been reviewed so poorly by several folks on Amazon.)

2. What character from a “Classic” TV show would you like to be?

Alan Brady from the Dick van Dyke Show.

3. On which “Classic” TV Show would you have loved to have a walk-on role?

Probably Star Trek.

4. Can you remember a line you liked from a “Classic” TV show?

Yes. Maybe even more than one.

5. Which TV doctor would you choose to remove your appendix?

Marcus Welby.

6. Which TV doctor would you not let touch you with a 10-foot pole?

Jack “Boomer” Morrison on St. Elsewhere; he was well-meaning, though.

7. Which TV doctor/hospital would you choose for the best medical care?

The OTHER hospital in town besides St. Eligius (a/k/a St. Elsewhere).

8. Everyone knows nurses run the hospital. Who was/is your favorite TV nurse?

The nurses of China Beach, especially McMurtry.

9. Do you consider yourself a “fan” of reality TV?

No. I’ve watched it in the past – Real World, Survivor – but I’ve totally burned out on the genre. Unless you count Who Do You Think You Are?, which is a genealogy search.

10. What’s your “can’t miss” reality TV show (or shows)?

None.

11. What reality TV show do you suppose the devil plays on the TV in Hell as punishment?

Any of those shows involving 16-year-old girls who are either wanting a lavish party or are pregnant.

12. If you were given a free ticket to be on any reality show, which one would you choose?

The Amazing Race. It doesn’t interest me, but it doesn’t offend me either.

13. What shows would make up a perfect night of TV viewing for you?

I so seldom watch TV in real-time anyway. So, JEOPARDY!, Who Do You Think You Are (about the only 8 o’clock show I watch), Modern Family, 30 Rock, Grey’s Anatomy.

14. What show(s) would you cancel without a moment’s hesitation?

This would involve actually watching a show enough to hate it. There’s a wide swatch I just ignore.

15. Is there a show (previously canceled or just no longer airing) that you’d bring back, original cast and all?

No. Shows for their own time.

16. You get to create one show to put on the schedule, with any stars you choose. Who and what would it be?

I can’t imagine doing that. Even shows that are on currently that seem decent (Castle immediately comes to mind) I’m not watching because I don’t have time, so adding another program to the mix seems counterproductive.

17. Is there a game show (past or present) you think you would do really well on, as a contestant?

Password. Or Pyramid.

18. Is there a game show you think is the stupidest thing you’ve ever seen?

Well, yeah, but it was so dumb I don’t recall it. I do hate the whammy on Press Your Luck.
I was going to link to a bomb that Jackie Gleason hosted called You’re In the Picture – noted last year by Mark Evanier – but it seems to be removed from the Internet, but the apology still remains.

19. Is there a game show you watch but don’t like to admit to watching? (A guilty pleasure!)

No. At this point, I just watch JEOPARDY!, without guilt.

20. Who is your favorite game show host? Who is your least favorite?

i watched a LOT of game shows in their prime, and I thought most of the hosts were quite competent: Bill Cullen, Bud Collyer, Garry Moore, Dennis James, Alex Trebek before JEOPARDY! I don’t think I disliked any, really, though Howie Mandel on Deal or No Deal is a bit peculiar.

21. Who is your favorite (past or present) TV cop?

Barney Miller.

22. Which TV cop do you think was the most crooked, or the most inept?

Barney Fife.

23. Which TV show had the best ensemble cast of police officers?

Barney Miller. Or Hill Street Blues.

24. You need to hire a bodyguard for yourself. Which TV cop do you choose?

Mick Belker from Hill Street Blues. He was nuts.

25. Who is your favorite stand-up comedian of all time?

Bill Cosby, followed by Bob Newhart.

26. Which one could you do without? (Not your type of humor, or just plain stupid!)

Benny Hill. Actually, there are a lot of them, but I just don’t keep track of things I dislike.

27. Which comedian do you think has gone on to have a great career aside from doing stand-up?

Steve Martin, clearly. I’ve seen one of his plays a few years back.

28. If you went to a comedy club on an amateur night, and they gave you some jokes and a microphone, would you go onstage?

Not on your life.

29. Who is/was your favorite TV mom?

Timmy’s mom on Lassie, played by June Lockhart.

30. Was she a realistic mother, or more of a TV fantasy type?

Very real.

31. Which TV mom did you find the most unrealistic? Or if you’d rather: creepy – sappy – mean – you choose the adjective, and you name the mom.

My Mother, the Car.

32. No disrespect to your dear old mum, but which TV mom did you think it might be neat to have as your own?

Laura Petrie!

33. What show would you like to see brought back for an hour or two episode, to see how the characters are doing now? (This should be a show that it might be possible to do a reunion on.)

Freaks and Geeks

34. Pick a show that could not realistically be brought back for a reunion, because some or all of the cast members are gone. What if they could have done a reunion before it was too late? Name the show you’d most like to see.

Barney Miller.

35. Which reunion show have you watched and thought “Wow, they should have left that one alone!”

Haven’t watched one in years, but there was a particularly cloying episode for the Brady Bunch.

36. Which do you prefer- a “reunion” episode of the series or a “cast reunion” where the actors sit around and talk about the making of the show?

I’m very fond of the MAS*H cast reunion, and even Happy Days, which was an OK show, but hardly one I watched regularly.

37. What is your favorite TV theme song?

Hill Street Blues. Or Perry Mason.

38. Which song drives you crazy enough to hit mute on the remote?

Nothing comes to mind.

39. Which song are you proud to say you remember (most of) the lyrics to???

Proud is not the word. I do know the lyrics to Mr. Ed, Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan’s Island, and Green Acres. Do they still do TV themes with lyrics?

Grief

You’d like to know following my own mother’s death, we have had a great healing.

I must say that my friends have been most helpful to me in dealing with grief. Apparently, I had said something useful to a friend when her father died, which was at some point after my father died: “Just so you know, I often think of (and quote) your message to me after my dad died, that grief is a non-linear thing. Still happens, in the most unexpected places.”

Well, THAT’S right. Besides the situations already mentioned in this blog, in the past couple of months, I’ve cried at:
* sad songs that have nothing to do with my mother, or death
* the mournful sound of train whistles
* an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy”, where a young father dies before he can take his son to the big game; I believe he had a stroke, which might be a factor for me

Of course, the other thing that’s in play is that this is my LAST parent who is gone. As another friend in the same position noted: “Now there’s no one ‘above’ you. That’s pretty weird, huh? We miss our parents as individuals, but also for the roles they played.” And since both of my parents were only children, I NEVER had aunts, uncles, first cousins. I mean, my PARENTS had aunts and uncles and cousins, but my sisters and I never did. And I’m the oldest of my generation.

A doctor of one of my sisters recommended the book Orphaned Adult: Understanding and Coping With Grief and Change After the Death of Our Parents by Alexander Levy, printed by Perseus Publishing, ISBN 0-7362-0361-0. It shows up on this list of resources to help one deal with grief. The book is at a library affiliated with the Albany Public Library, and I’ve just received it on interlibrary loan.

Another friend wrote: “You’d like to know following my own mother’s death, we have had a great healing. And it has brought our family closer with annual holiday gatherings.” Well, maybe. Certainly, the pathologies of my family were less evident this time than after my father died.

I had forgotten how many of my Albany friends had met my mother at some point when she came up to visit. They all used terms such as “delightful”, “a lovely woman”. One of my old Binghamton friends wrote: “I always liked your mom. She was very down to earth and unpretentious. I loved her smile and how it always warmed up the room.”

The Money Issue QUESTION

I took out a credit card to transfer the charges from another credit card. The latter card is a zero interest card until February 2012, which will facilitate me paying it off without extra charges.

I love money. I hate money.

After my mom died, my sister came across some letters my mom wrote to no one in particular – they’d be journaling entries, I suppose, had she put them in a diary. One in particular from November 1995, was about how quickly my father was burning through their retirement savings. My mother was very thrifty, very good with money, but my father was…not, let’s just say.

When I graduated from college, I wasn’t making enough money to pay for my student loans right away, so it wasn’t until about five years after I graduated that I was able to secure a credit card. It was a Sears card, with which I bought a clock/radio for $12.95. I lived too much on my credit cards, especially when I was unemployed or a grad student.

But at the beginning of 2011, I had no credit card debt at all, due in no small part because I won some money on a TV game show a decade ago, and the much more disciplined attitude of my spouse. And now, I can’t STAND to have credit card debt.

It became clear that the money I spent around my mother’s funeral I would not be able to pay off in a month, so right away, I did something I almost never do; I took out a credit card to transfer the charges from another credit card. The latter card is a zero-interest card until February 2012, which will facilitate me paying it off without extra charges.

Now, while I’m pretty much off desiring STUFF, I still wish I had more money for EXPERIENCES – travel, specifically. We ARE taking a trip to Canada this year. But if I were less disciplined – and in my heart of hearts, I’m really not that disciplined, I just force myself to act as though I were – I’d be going to a lot more plays and concerts.

Oh, and I hate paying taxes, not just because I can’t get that favorable GE rate, but because I’m a 1040A or 1040EZ (i.e., simple) guy, but since I’ve gotten married, I have had to deal with additional schedules involving various deductions.

So what’s YOUR attitude towards money?

***
The original version of Money, by Barrett Strong, co-written by Berry Gordy, the very first Motown hit.

Book Review: Word Freak

The early chapters alternate between the competition narrative and the history of the game, from inventor Alfred Butts; to the various game owners…

On my train ride to Charlotte, NC, earlier this year, having finished the Motown book, I started reading Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players by Stefan Fatsis. This was another library sale book purchase. I finished it a few mornings later.

The book is part history of the game, part autobiography. Fatsis, a Wall Street Journal sports reporter who can be heard regularly on National Public Radio, writes about his evolution from playing pickup Scrabble games in Greenwich Village (lower Manhattan) to his improbable rise through the ranks of high-ranking Scrabble players. He describes the elite competitors, who play at a level far beyond those 30 million players who compete in American living rooms. The “freaks” include a vitamin-popping standup comic; a former bank teller whose intestinal troubles earned him the nickname “G.I. Joel”; a burly, unemployed African American from Baltimore’s inner city; the three-time national champion who plays according to Zen principles; and Fatsis himself, who we see transformed from a curious reporter to a confirmed Scrabble nut.

The early chapters alternate between the competition narrative and the history of the game, from inventor Alfred Butts; to the various game owners (Selchow & Righter, Coleco, Hasbro, Mattel UK) and their response/responsibility to competitive Scrabble, which, unlike chess, has intellectual property restrictions; to the words themselves, how best to learn them – anagramming! – and how legitimate words are determined in the US and in international play.

If the latter chapters were a little bit too much “inside baseball” – will Fatsis make it to the next level? – it was still an interesting read. I particularly enjoyed the description of Albany, or more specifically, “Outside Albany, at the Marriott in suburban Colonie, along a highway [Wolf Road] lined with strip malls and corporate parks.” And Ron Tiekert, using a rack of EENRSU?, spelling AUBERGiNES through an existing A, B, and G, making the blank an I, IS extraordinary.